The adventures of Gary and Carolyn living aboard and continuously cruising the uk canals and rivers on narrowboat Inca

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

A Frosty cruise

We pulled pins from the top of Hillmorton locks at 08.10 and with the temperature at 1deg a frost on the ground and full Sunshine its a perfect morning for cruising. Carolyn had some fun with the ropes as they were all frozen stiff.

As it was a bit slippery around the locks Carolyn decided that she wasn't going to slip and fall over on the ice so she said as I wanted to make an early start I could have the pleasure of lock wheeling today.

Carolyn is off into the distance leaving me behind to close the paddles and gates on the lock. Apparently I am not as fast as she is when operating the locks. I think it must be an age thing.

With 2 boats moored on the bollards before the bottom lock Carolyn has to hold Inca on the centre rope while I do the elsan and rubbish.

After a near disaster at this flight of locks a few months ago when a boat got hung up Carolyn keeps Inca well back from the bottom lock gates

Safely down and then out of the lock and then an hour on one of the slowest water points on the system, We then moved off towards Rugby on a lovely crisp Winters day.

We passed this chap on route and what a fine looking beast he is. Just look at the size of the nuts horns on him (bet you looked) , I reckon he could do some damage with them !!!

Eventually arriving at Brownsover we picked up a mooring on the park side and with low temperatures forecast we will spend a few days here. There are a few retail parks just down the road from our mooring so I guess I wont be seeing much of Carolyn.

8 comments:

Since this is my first comment for 2016 - Happy New Year! Hillmorton Locks always bring back good memories. They are the first locks we ever did, and we didn't do anything dumb. Makes me shiver just thinking about having your "horns" exposed like that on such a cold morning. Aloha, Amos

Passed through Rugby today. Had expected it to have plenty of free space but it was not so. Then I noticed the names of some of the boats - was it a blogger's convention or summat? :-) Cheers, John nb Samsara.

Hi John. There are a few of us here. There must be a name for a group of bloggers when there are several together. Needless to say we have had the odd drink and meal out together . Give us a shout hello next time you pass ..cheers Gary

Hi Gary. Unfortunately I could not stop for a chat as I wish to be the other side of Glascote before the stoppage. In different circumstances I would have said hello as I have been reading the blog for a couple of years now :-Cheers, John nb Samsara @ Hartshill